The world of mini-beasts which keep our soil healthy and create magnificent compost highlighted by the Yorkshire Rotters

There aren’t many people who can get genuinely excited about soil. But my friend Joan Nicholson can.
North Yorkshire Rotter Joan Nicholson, far left, with  Sara Allen, Cath Wilson and Janet EdmundsonNorth Yorkshire Rotter Joan Nicholson, far left, with  Sara Allen, Cath Wilson and Janet Edmundson
North Yorkshire Rotter Joan Nicholson, far left, with Sara Allen, Cath Wilson and Janet Edmundson

For close on ten years she has been one of the North Yorkshire Rotters who talk about the joys of composting and when I asked her if she’d like to explain them to me, within seconds she was treating me to a fascinating flow of ideas.

The first thing she asked me to consider is why the world isn’t covered in mountains of dead leaves. After all, billions of them fall each year and yet we aren’t wading through great depths of leaf falls from previous seasons every time we walk through the woods.

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Turns out the answer is pretty simple. Something eats them. But the complexities of the lives of all the creatures that live off discarded organic matter pushes the limits of our scientific knowledge.

A few of those creatures are relatively easy to see like the 27 species of earthworms that crawl about beneath our feet and emerge occasionally to keep early birds well fed. Joan takes brightly striped tiger worms into schools and lets children watch and feel as an unexpectedly spectacular worm wriggles around their fingers.

Then she gets them making little wormeries in disused flower pots in the hope that they will take them home and pass on their new found enthusiasm to their parents.

Getting the children to see other creatures in the soil requires a microscope. Look through the lens of a powerful enough one at the average plot of healthy soil and you will find it is simply teaming with things trying to chomp their way through decaying vegetable matter – and each other.

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For that to happen a compost heap needs to be supplied with air, water, warmth and food, avoiding the use of pesticides and weedkillers.

Joan’s advice is that half the compost heap should be soft green matter without too many lawn clippings and the other half should be things that ensure plenty of air lets all those creatures breathe. Cardboard, paper, eggshells and the occasional young twig do the job nicely.

Darwin spent many of his later years researching and writing his best seller, The Formation of Vegetable Mould, through the Action of Worms, with Observations on their Habits. In the hundred years since he began the serious study of soil science, we still haven’t managed to fully understand the lives of the majority of the creatures that live in soil.

Yet we are adding huge numbers of microplastic particles to their world with little understanding of how it will impact on them.

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When it goes well Joan tells me that a good compost heap produces beautiful crumbly soil that smells gorgeous and grows the most fantastic plants.

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